Prep volleyball: Archbishop Murphy 3, Sultan 0

SULTAN -- Strong performances from McKenna Palmer and Sam Hayward paced Archbishop Murphy to a sweep of Sultan on set scores of 25-19, 25-16 and 25-22 as the Wildcats defeated the Turks in a Cascade Conference volleyball match on Tuesday night. Palmer had a team-high 26 assists on the night, to go along with her four aces, two blocks and six digs. Hayward added 11 kills four aces and nine digs. "McKenna is a rock," said Archbishop Murphy head coach Andrew Ness. "She delievers a great ball and spreads it around really well. Sam is a big, tall, hard-hitting freshman with a great love for the game."Despite winning the match in three games, coach Ness admitted that Sultan's experience kept the first and third sets close before his squad could finally secure the victory."It was their senior night, so Sultan was playing with a lot of emotion," said Ness. "They have five seniors. They're a lot older than we are and their maturity level showed that. We were able to overcome that by serving extremely well."With the victory the Wildcats locked up the number one seed for the next week's District 1/2 volleyball tournament. The first round matchup puts them against the number four seed from the Northwest Conference. "(The Northwest Conference) still has a few more matches," Ness said on Archbishop Murphy's potential opening-round opponent. "That conference is really up in the air. Squalicum and Anacortes are in the mix. We probably won't know (who we play) until the end of the week."At Sultan H.S.Archbishop Murphy 25 25 25 -- 3Sultan 19 16 22 -- 0Highlights--Archbishop Murphy: Lauren Braswell: 4 Aces, 10 Digs; Emily Capponi: 3 Kills, 7 Digs; Jaime Cymbaluk: 3 Kills, 2 Aces, 4 Digs; Rachael Gordon: 2 Kills; Sam Hayward: 11 Kills, 4 Aces, 9 Digs; Caroline Hoban: 4 Kills, 11 Digs; Abby Jamieson: 5 Kills, 9 Digs; Caroline Hoban: 4 Kills, 11 Digs; Abby Jamieson: 5 Kills, 9 Digs; McKenna Palmer: 4 Aces, 2 Blocks, 6 Digs, 26 Assists; Alexa Rauvola: 2 Digs. Sultan: not reported. Records--Archbishop Murphy 11-3 league, 12-3 overall. Sultan 2-12, 3-12.

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